


Impossibility

by TopazWolf (ShadowBobcat10)



Series: Claire's Impossibilities [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-08-30 12:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8533627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowBobcat10/pseuds/TopazWolf
Summary: There is nothing more annoying than a lie that doesn't come true. Claire and her crew of five spend most of their school days doing what other high school students do - make stuff up.  But when Claire gets a revolutionary and dangerous idea, the six friends are thrown into an adventure where literally anything can happen - because they gain the power to modify the laws of physics.





	1. An Idea

There is nothing more annoying than a lie that doesn't come true. 

Yeah.  Hi.  I'm Claire.  My crew consists of Aaron, Jack, Robert, Jason, and Cole.  No.  These are not our real names.  But we are very real.  All of us are real people, just like you think you are. 

But this story isn't real.  So don’t think for a second I'd do any of these things for real.  Or that any of this stuff is possible.  At least, I really hope it's not. 

It was high school.  We were sitting at blue lunch tables in the center of the school, talking.  Eating lunch.  Nothing important, much.  Of course, Aaron and I were arguing about some physics thing.  Jason, Cole, and Robert were talking about some anime I'd never heard of, and Jack was not there with us.  Usual. 

Out of nowhere, Jason decided to scream something about "flying banana butts," which was not that unusual, either, and we all turned and looked at him.  Jason was the resident "so what?" with curly brown hair, and he was slightly on the chubby side. 

"Why do I hang out with you idiots?"  Aaron sighed.  The resident "nerd," Aaron completed the stereotypical look with glasses and cargo shorts. 

"Yeah, why do you hang out with us?"  I shot back at Aaron.  I was the other resident nerd, with the glasses and a camouflage jacket.  Aaron and I hated each other, which was a shame, because he was really smart when he wasn't being a pain in the butt. 

"What if we could fly?"  Cole asked.  He was skinny, he spoke with a lisp, and he was always curious. 

"It doesn’t matter if we can fly," Aaron said in his quiet, but fast and intimidating manner.  "First, humans are not aerodynamically designed to produce lift, so that would never work.  Second–" 

"A-hole, you didn't answer his question," I said, eyeing Aaron sarcastically.  "And if we could change the laws of physics, then we wouldn't have to worry about lift.  We could just strength of gravity." 

"And I would tear the Earth apart.  Flying is boring compared to the destruction of planets," Aaron sneered. 

"Whatever," I said, turning to Cole.  "Do you think it'd be cool to change the laws of physics?" 

"How would you change it if you don't even understand it?"  Robert asked.  He turned to Jason and Cole, and they started to talk about the latest anime video game that I had never heard of. 

"I think that'd be cool," Jason said, finally. 

I shrugged.  "That's great."  I slinked away from the group to find Jack. 

As usual, blond and skinny Jack was hanging out at his mother's classroom.  His mother was an art teacher, and he seemed to spend every lunch at her room.  Or this time, he was outside the art room. 

"Hey Jack," I said.  "How's lunch?" 

"Not bad," he said.  "What's up?" 

I shrugged.  "I have an idea…" 

The six of us met up in a secluded staircase at the edge of the school.  Lunch was almost over, but I had a plan.  A plan the escape the meaning of reality. 

But that plan started with a lie. 

"Nothing can change the laws of physics, right?  That's impossible," I started.  "But Nothingness is something." 

"What's your point?"  Aaron interrupted.  "Lunch is almost over.  I have to get to Algebra 2 Honors." 

"Shut up," I hushed.  He gave me an obscene gesture.  I ignored him.  As you can see, we're great friends.  "So, if nothing can change the laws of physics, what if we became nothing?  Would we be able to change physics?" 

"Why are you so obsessed with this idea?"  Aaron shouted.  "It's stupid." 

"It's not stupid," Cole argued.  Jack laughed.  Despite the harshness, our arguing was usually good-natured. 

"How would this even work?  What is you point, anyway?"  Aaron demanded.  "How would this help us?" 

"Aaron has a point," Robert said. 

"You're a douchebag," Jason said.  This was getting nowhere. 

The bell to end lunch stubbornly rung, even in our secluded area.  We dispersed, heading to our fifth period classes.  Aaron had a point.  Aaron always had a point.  It was the only reason I bothered to insult him at all. 

Sitting in fifth period, waiting for the late bell to ring, I was already thinking about how I would accomplish any of this.


	2. A Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first person in the series of events may be the least expected - and the most unsavory. That doesn't ruin any of the fun for Claire's crew, though.

It's a secret.  Really, it began as a lie, but then it became a secret.  If I trust you enough, I might tell you at some point, but really, it's a secret.  None of my crew knew or will hopefully ever know about it. 

One think I didn't know was who would go first.  I was really hoping it'd be me, but knowing my luck, well, fat chance.  At least I knew we'd all get it.  At some point.  Bad chances. 

I arrived at school with a knot in my stomach.  I knew if I asked, I'd give away my secret.  If I didn't ask, then one of them would probably stop the rotation of planet Earth, swinging the top layer of rock into space, and catapulting the moon into Venus, which would be awesome to see anywhere but on the Earth, Earth's moon, or Venus.  I was going to set up an observatory on Mars.  Not that I was going to – yeah, that would have been my first plan of action.  Sorry, Earthlings. 

When I met up at our meeting place in the center courtyard of the school, nobody was showing any signs of omnipotence or irregularity.  I hoped it hadn't started yet, and I would be the first one, despite the odds. 

"What is the thing you hate most?"  Jack asked.  I looked at him, curious.  "You know, like the one thing you just can’t like." 

"When lies don't come true," I said.  There was no way he would know what that meant, but it was still funny to see his expression. 

"Do you lie often?" he asked, confused. 

"If it comes true, it's not a lie," I said slyly.  He looked quite shocked.  I smiled. 

Jason tapped me on the shoulder.  "What's Newton's equation for gravity?" he asked me. 

I looked around to see if the strength of gravity was changing anywhere around me.  "I’m not sure off the top of my head.  Do you want me to look it up?"  I'm smart, but I didn't take physics in 9th grade. 

"That's fine.  Aaron wanted to know if you did." 

I shot Aaron an obscene gesture.  He shot it back, a snide smile spreading on his face. 

"Do you know what the strength of gravity is here?"  I shouted at him. 

Suddenly, my backpack felt heavier.  My legs were tired already, and I groaned.  "You're first?" 

Aaron's smile disappeared.  "Wait.  What do you mean?  How did you know?" he asked.  "Did you cause this?" 

I realized why I didn't notice Aaron's omnipotence.  He was like that, more or less, all the time.  "We're all going to be like this.  And yes, I control this."  He put the gravity beneath my feet back to normal. 

"Of course it was you," he said, walking away with Jason.  I tried to look powerful and snide, things I usually weren't, so that it'd look like I could return his threats. 

Typical.  Of course, I could start and end it at any time I wanted, and I could even stick everything into deep suspension, but I couldn’t chose how it unfolded.  That was beyond the thing beyond my power.  Beyond my secret. 

There was nothing strange about my first class.  The speed of light didn't change, and the movements of objects didn't seem out of place.  Either Aaron was being nice, which was probably somewhat plausible, or that Aaron only had power over a small area around him, for now, which meant I needed to get my power soon. 

I tried throwing a fork at the wall with as little power as possible.  It just fell.  No luck on modifying air resistance or friction.  Same story with the water in my water bottle, which was a wave, and light which was a particle and a wave.  It just wasn't happening for me.  I shouldn't have included Aaron. 

During passing period, Jason was able to slide across the floor, negating friction. 

"Are you just removing friction, or are you changing the strength?"  I asked him.  He slid on concrete in the center courtyard of the school. 

"I think it's just strength."  He pointed at my feet and suddenly, my shoes felt grippier. 

"Cool," I said.  Jason gripped the railing of a staircase and started climbing the wall. 

"What's more powerful?"  Aaron asked, walking up to us.  "Friction or gravity?"  He started pulling at the gravity under the climbing Jason.  Jason tried compensating, struggling to stick to the wall. 

Finally, Jason slipped.  In panic, Aaron sent Jason into zero-g, making him float there in midair, as if gravity had no effect.  More accurately, he negated the curvature of space-time at that spot. 

"Gravity wins," I whispered.  The bell rang.  Because we were only a-holes to each other, Aaron let Jason down lightly.  If I had been up there, he would have let me die.


	3. Writer's Secret

My crew and I met up in P.E. 1, the only class we all had together.  We met up at roll call and talked about, well, what just sprung on us this morning.  For the time being, everything felt normal. 

"And everything is so much lighter," Aaron was saying to his friend Mark, who wasn't in my crew.  Mark was athletic, and a bit on the cocky side. 

"Cool, man," Mark responded.  "So, yesterday, we went…" 

I walked over to where Jack and Kisa Alvarez were talking about whatever Kisa talked about.  God, he was weird.  Or should I say she…?  Well, it's complicated.  Let's just not get into all that. 

"Hey Jack!  Hey Kisa!"  I greeted.  "How're you doing?" 

"I've heard certain people are being influenced by your writer," Kisa whispered.  She giggled in the Kisa way. 

"Don't say that too loud!"  I practically scream-whispered. 

"Don't worry," she said.  "You writer loves you as much as my writer loves me."  Kisa was a junior, and like, had a secret.  But she usually used it for smut.  I hate smut, and prefer sci-fi by a hundred times.  No, a million.  No, that's not big enough.  I prefer sci-fi infinite times to smut. 

But Kisa's writer loved her a lot.  My writer constantly told me about it. 

"Not true," I muttered.  "Your writer loves you a lot more." 

"A fox animatronic," Kisa scoffed.  She did a little happy jump, following the beat of the song she was listening to.  "At least she promised no–" 

"What are you guys talking about?"  Aaron assaulted us. 

"Your ugly butt," I blurted.  I never talked to people without writers about my writer.  It was the universal rule among the protected.  Never speak about your writer with the non-protected.  Of course, some didn't want to follow such rules. 

"That's not nice," Kisa protested.  Other than being my friend, Kisa was also the class's teacher assistant.  She felt it was her duty to police us whenever I was mean to Aaron.  Or whenever anything else happened, for that matter. 

She also was one who didn't seem too keen to uphold the protected rule.  Of course, I did.  No reason for me to follow her. 

"Whatever," I said.  "We're talking about something you hate." 

"What.  Your face?" 

I cocked my head.  "Nope.  Yours." 

That's when the teacher made her appearance and herded us to our role-call spots.  We did our mundane stretch routine, and once again, she didn't pick me to be stretch leader.  Well, it didn't really matter.  No one took P.E. stretches seriously anyway. 

After that, she handed us our mile cards and announced that today, we were to do a two-mile run. 

Two miles always felt like a lot, and at that moment, I wished I had gotten gravity, friction, or something good for running.  Of course, all of my nerd crew hated running. 

As usual, my crew partnered up, except for Cole, who was in a different class.  I walked with Jack, Jason walked with Robert, and Aaron with Mark. 

Jack and I talked about the potential of his power, and the potential of combining powers. 

"Yes, so if you had friction and air pressure, then you could slow someone's fall so much that they'd survive jumping off a building!"  Jack exclaimed. 

"It's molecule distance, but yeah," I agreed.  "It would be some amazing stuff to combine powers.  But I don't think it's happening that way." 

"So you know exactly what's going to happen?" 

"No," I clarified.  "It's like a movie.  I can start, stop, and end the thing, but I cannot change it."  That was a lot further than I usually told, but since he was part of it, and he was a good friend, I figured it wouldn't hurt too much to tell just Jack. 

"Okay," Jack said, contemplating. 

The run felt way longer with Jason and Aaron passing us so frequently.  Apparently, the lazy bums ditched their regular partners and sat around talking about cat girls for the rest of the period.  They were so weird.  Robert seemed to disappear somewhere, but it was probably because Jack and I were slow runners. 

After the run, which I did not cheat on, for your information, I met up with the rest of my crew. 

"What's your thing?"  Jason asked.  Aaron piqued his interest.  I had to deflect him, somehow, but I felt bad about lying to Jason.  He was only nice to me, unlike a certain other person I was talking to.  But heck, I had my personal safely to defend. 

I decided rolling my eyes was a safe call.  "Better than yours," I lied.  I was good at lying.

The bell rang for the end of P.E.  Aaron slunk away.

"See you guys outside," I said as I headed to the girl's locker room.  

Snack came after second period.  I waited for my crew in the back courtyard, near the locker rooms and the basketball court.  Sitting on top of the wall, I could see the tennis courts, the baseball field, and anyone trying to approach.

The wind was mean that day and I zipped up my boy's green camouflage jacket.  I wasn't pro-army or anything, but I liked the idea of blending in.  Too bad forest camouflage didn't work well in the suburbs. 

Robert walked over to Cole, talking about some kind of anime.  It was kind of strange that I had all these friends that watched anime when I didn't.

"Did yours show up yet?"  I asked them.

"Nope," Robert said.  His purple hair looked strangely pink in the mid-morning fog.

"I wish," Cole said.

"Don't tell Aaron I didn't get mine yet," I said.

"Oh I won't," Cole said.

"Of course not," Robert agreed.  "But what's happening?" 

"I think we'll all get something soon," I said.

"Who's 'we'?"  Robert asked.

"Me, you, Cole, Aaron, Jack, and Jason," I said.  "That's it."

"Why'd you include Aaron?"  Cole asked.

The bell rang for the end of snack.  People in the back courtyard and the basketball court started shuffling to their third period classes.

"Because I had to," I said.  That wasn't a lie.  I had to have both Cole and Aaron in this one.  My writer had something planned for this iteration of my secret lie.

"Well, I've got to get going," Cole said.  "Bye."

"Bye," I responded.  I headed out to my geometry class on the other side of the school. 


End file.
